A blog of the Greater Oklahoma City chapter of the United Nations Association of the USA
The name of this blog is taken from the preamble of the Charter of the United Nations (1945):
"We the Peoples of the United Nations, Determined...
to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small...."

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Focus on Committees

The Oklahoma Legislature is in session, and -- in the words of Gideon J. Tucker -- "No man's life, liberty, or property are safe...."

We're watching 4 proposals in the Oklahoma Legislature that would jeopardize intellectual freedom in our state. These measures would have the effect of restricting public access to the knowledge resources of the United Nations.

None of these measures has been voted on yet. The first three have been assigned to the Energy Committee of the Oklahoma Senate. The last one has been assigned to the States' Rights Committee of the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

(Yes, we have a States' Rights Committee in the Oklahoma Legislature; it is new).

To oppose these bills, our plan of action is to engage (in a friendly way) the members of these committees with the goal of persuading them to vote down these Anti-UN measures.

ACTION REQUESTED. Please consider reaching out to the members of these committees. You are welcome to use the following fact sheets (in PDF format) that we have prepared:

On behalf of the OKC Chapter of the UN Association, I have already written to most of these people. I have tried to explain how they can support the future progress of our state by opposing SB23, SB53, SJR2, and HB1412. I have asked them to preserve the intellectual freedom that is currently enjoyed by all Oklahomans.

These folks need to hear from you as well.

I want to be clear that none of these bills has yet been scheduled for a hearing. When they are brought up for discussion in committee, we won't get much advance notice -- maybe a day or two. To be sure that our message is heard, we need to start now with letters, emails, phone calls, etc.